Buckeye State Credit Union settling into new State Street space

By RUTH LANGrlang@the-review.com Published: April 11, 2014 3:00 AM

With its fourth move in nearly four decades, the Alliance branch of Buckeye State Credit Union has an upgraded facility and can offer some new services as a result of a streamlined process.

The move of just a little over a half mile -- from 1731 W. State St. to a brand new building at 1010 W. State St. -- took place over Presidents Day weekend in order to minimize member inconvenience and service interruption, and the process from planning a move to working out of the new office happened in less than a year, according to Kathy Hammond, business development and communications director for Buckeye State Credit Union.

"It came at a good time because our lease was up in the fall (2013)," Hammond continued. "Of course, when your lease is ready to expire, you look at all options, and it was more cost-effective for us to actually build a new building over time."

"We just wanted to renovate, and we were looking for ways to streamline things and be a little bit more efficient, and this building seems to provide that for us," added branch manager Renee Kuhn, who said privacy, visibility and security have improved with the office construction modeled somewhat after the Painesville and Canton branches. "We're closer to the center of things (in the city), which makes things more available for the community. Membership growth is also a goal of ours, and being more centrally located is helpful to some people."

New features include a lower special services desk, which is handicapped accessible, and an enclosed room for safety deposit boxes. A few outdoor housekeeping items, such as blacktop sealing, striping for parking spaces and landscaping, have yet to be completed.

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Overall, member response has been positive, Kuhn said. "They really like it. When they come in and they say, 'Ooh, it's so pretty," we like to hear that -- that they have a nice environment to come into that makes them feel good when they come through the door."

Buckeye State Credit Union has roughly 5,678 members associated with the Alliance branch, and roughly 17,500 throughout the organization's five northeast Ohio locations, but both Kuhn and Hammond stressed the members mean more than just numbers.

"Credit unions are owned by their members, so members kind of have this community feeling, and that's the felling that we want to project -- that they're part of our family," Hammond said, adding each branch participates in a number of community fundraisers and projects.

Alliance's office recently participated in a clothing drive for the YWCA, and this quarter is promoting a fundraiser for the Wounded Warrior Project.

"We're seated here in the Alliance community," Kuhn assured. "We'd like to stay for everyone; the more accessible, the better."

As a whole, Hammond said, the credit union also seeks to implement programs, such as a "Money Desktop" financial planning software available on computers and mobile devices that launched in January; mobile banking, coming in May; and an identity theft protection program coming in June, that have value to the members.

Buckeye State Credit Union is open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Thursday, 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Friday and 9 a.m. to noon Saturday.